Delivery of small and macromolecules—including DNA, drug molecules, imaging agents, peptides, antibodies, and enzymes—into cells is critical to realizing their full potential in a range of research and therapeutic applications; yet, intracellular delivery and transfection remain difficult tasks. In particular, effective transfection is typically the most important, and potentially limiting, step in numerous molecular biology and genetic modification protocols. In order to achieve a desired outcome, cargo molecules must reach a specific intracellular target (e.g., the nuclear or mitochondrial genomes for gene therapy).
Approaches to intracellular delivery are categorized as: (1) those that use biological/viral vectors and (2) those that rely on non-viral chemical vectors or physical techniques (application of an energy field) to access the cell interior or specific organelles (including the nucleus). While multiple barriers to effective nuclear delivery of DNA exist (e.g., the extracellular matrix, cell membrane, cytoplasm, and nuclear envelope), conventional physical transfection solutions like sonoporation, laserfection, and electroporation focus only on permeabilization of the cell membrane and not on transport of DNA. As a result, current techniques are not as effective as desired, and there is a need to overcome deficiencies in current techniques.